By ARI MARCELO SOLON*

There were no tears shed for katarsis promoted against the Jewish people on October XNUMX

When I was at USP, with the material for the class on Plato and Aristotle for my Philosophy of Law course in 2024, I asked myself: why don't I take advantage and sign the manifesto of USP intellectuals on the conflict that is taking place in the region of Raise? It would make sense for me to do so, after all I am affiliated with PSol – with unequivocal action, alongside the STF, in various causes of interest to the oppressed Brazilian population, such as AgR in ADPF 412 DF – and I even support its more Trotskyist wing; Furthermore, I completely agree with what is expressed in the left's manifestos on war.

I don't subscribe because there's a paragraph missing about Aristotle: tragedy causes tears in everyone. “La présentation du tragique repose principalement sur ceci que le monstrueux, comment Dieu-et-l'homme s'accouple, et comment, toute limit abolie, la puissance panique de la nature et le trefonds de l'homme deviennent Un dans la fureur , se conçoit par ceci que le devenir-un illimité se purifie par une séparation illimitée“ [“The presentation of the tragic is based mainly on this, other than the monstrous, like the God-and-man couple, and like, abolished all the limits, the panic power of nature and the depths of man become One in fury, that is why unlimited becoming-one is conceived to be purified by unlimited separation”].

This manifesto does not mention the tears caused by children crying on October XNUMXth. Rightly so, it is talked about the tears and tragedy caused by Israel to the Palestinians since October XNUMXth and even before this date. However, there is no mention of the tragedy of defenseless children on October XNUMXth; Children are the most vulnerable group in this conflict, as in all others. They have no options other than to burst into tears, but this crying, which under normal conditions would break the silence and even overwhelm the sounds of civilian life, is drowned out by the deafening noises of the confrontation, just as intense lighting obscures the vision and pepper even masks the taste of putrefied food from the palate.

We now turn to Hegel. Influenced by German Romanticism and its vision of the work of art, in addition to his vast studies on Greek authors, tragedy always occupied a central point in Hegel's philosophy, see his considerations on the tragic play Antigone Sophocles and Shakespeare's plays. Young Hegel asks: are Jews incapable of tragedy? “The tragedy of the Jewish people is not a Greek tragedy, it is incapable of provoking pity and fear, because these attach only to the fate of a beautiful creature who had committed an inevitable flaw; whereas the [Jewish tragedy] can only provoke revulsion (Absheu). The fate of the Jewish people is that of Macbeth who went out of the limits of nature, combined with alien creatures, and in their service destroyed and murdered everything that is sacred in human nature, and finally was abandoned by his Gods and necessarily crashed.” [“The tragedy of the Jewish people is not a Greek tragedy, it is incapable of provoking pity and fear, for these only join the fate of the beautiful creature who committed the inevitable fault, while the [Jewish tragedy] can only provoke revulsion (Absheu) . The destiny of the Jewish people is that of Macbeth who went beyond the limits of nature, combined with aliens, and in his service destroyed and murdered everything that is sacred in human nature, and ultimately abandoned by his Gods… and necessarily fell”].

Precisely because of the lack of Aristotle's definition of tragedy, I do not sign this manifesto with which I completely agree. As Levinas says when discussing Husserl, in Humanism of the other man: “Faiblesse sans lâcheté comme l'incalescence d'une pitié. Décharge de l'être qui se déprend. Les larmes c'est peut-être cell. Défaillance de l'être tombant en humanité qui n'a pas été digne de retenir l'attention des philosophes. Mais la violence qui ne serait pas ce sanglot réprimé ou qui l'aurait étranglé pour toujours, n'est même pas de la race de Caïn; elle est fille de Hitler ou sa fille adoptive de him” [“Weakness without cowardice like the incalescence of a feather. Discharge of the being that is released. Maybe that's what tears are. Failure of being falling into humanity that was not worthy of retaining the attention of philosophers. But the violence that would not be this repressed sob or that would have strangled him forever, is not even of the race of Cain; she is Hitler’s daughter or his adopted daughter”].

As said before and I reiterate now: I am available to discuss left-wing anti-Semitism with any subscriber or supporter of this manifesto. There were no tears shed for katarsis promoted against the Jewish people on October XNUMXth, for that reason alone, even though I agree with the manifesto, I do not subscribe to it.

*Ari Marcelo Solon He is a professor at the Faculty of Law at USP. Author of, among others, books, Paths of philosophy and science of law: German connection in the future of justice (Prisma). [https://amzn.to/3Plq3jT]

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